TMP on Blu-Ray

Fair enough, although it's actually Wise himself (on-camera) who goes into a good amount of detail about the re-editing process in the DVD documentary (as well as on the audio commentary track), and claims that he personally supervised things -- as you mention, it's not really provable either way, but Wise's own words kind of give that theory a tiny bit more heft (as it were).

What the PR people said about the depth of Wise's involvement and what actually transpired isn't provable, obviously, but the editorial choices in the film don't match what Wise previously said he wanted to do if he could recut the film, and the number of fan wanky changes made in the DE smack of someone else driving the bus (hello Sharpline).

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Haven't seen the DE since it was released, but just off the top of my head: I'm hard-pressed to think how the CGI addition of an original series shuttlecraft as an easter egg is supposed to have contributed to Wise's original vision of the film.

If they were lost, it'd be the exact same situation that happened to Babylon 5, and which is preventing that series from getting an HD upgrade -- essentially, the original CGI files created way back in the mid-'90s were dumped out of memory and lost.

What this means is that Warner Bros. will have to spent a huge amount of money to create brand-new visual FX from scratch if they ever want to release B5 on Blu-Ray.

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But at least they wouldn't look so fake. I loved B5 but thats the one thing I always hated about it.. The CGI was cool. But looked 100% fake. Great for the 90's Not so much today.

The original special effects for B5 were famously done on 'Video Toaster' technology used on the old Commodore Amiga computers, right? Did they ever get around to updating it to more regular PCs later on? Changing to a completely different computer system might have contributed to those earlier FX shots no longer being available. As well as the fact that the commercial life of the Amiga itself died sometime around 1994. Could the Amiga files have been migrated to a new operating system?

EDIT: Wikipedia tells me they stopped using the Amiga after the first season.

I am so relieved we got the original cut of The Motion Picture on Blu-Ray instead of the Director Edition abomination that came out a decade ago. The original cinema release from 1979 is the definitive cut of TMP and no one should tinker with it. It is what it is and shouldn't have been messed with.

I am just glad that Paramount had the usual foresight to render the new DE effects in SD thus sparing us from its HD release. If someone from Paramount reads this, please ensure you never let some fool looking for a quick buck talk you into remastering the DE for the undoubted future blu-ray special uber edition. It is not broken, it does not need fixing, it is what it is and we love it.

The best thing that could happen for any future TMP release would be to go back to original camera negative and rebuild the movie from there using the exact same system CBS digital are using on TNG right now. Imagine those wonderful effects recomposited with 21st century technology... the original elements but without noise/matte lines etc NO NEW CGI, just the original but better.

OH and please Paramount, when you re-re-re release TMP on bluray please please don't scrub the grain off. DNR SUCKS. Keep the grain intact, scan at 8k or 16k or whatever and do it right next time. Just ask CBS Digital to do it! (Not HTV)

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Thats funny, I thought the DE was the only thing that made rewatching TMP worthwhile.

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Actually, I wouldn't go quite that far (see below). My nirvana would be the DE effects with all the footage added back in. Pacing be damned, I want ALL the content.